A gift in your Will can bring that same hope and healing to other families facing childhood cancer and other serious illnesses. Please consider leaving a gift in your will to help children like Fióna.
Childhood cancer entered the O’Reilly family’s life in the most unexpected way. One ordinary morning, while dressing her 14-month-old daughter, Fióna, Sarah noticed a few tiny lumps. They were small, and easy to dismiss but something in her heart sank. Fióna was her usual cheerful self, smiling up at her mam, yet the feeling wouldn’t go away. The family had just moved to the countryside, ready for a fresh start, when their world suddenly shifted.
Sarah brought Fióna to the GP, doing her best to stay calm. As the appointment was ending, she felt a strong urge to ask for a specialist referral right then and there. She still doesn’t know what made her insist, only that she’s grateful she did. Within a week, after scans and a biopsy, the news no parent ever wants to hear arrived: little Fióna had an aggressive soft tissue cancer. A ten-centimetre tumour was growing inside her tiny body. Sarah remembers holding her daughter close, whispering, “please don’t die”.
Journey
What followed was a year of intense chemotherapy, terrifying fevers, and countless emergency trips back to hospital. Fióna’s immune system kept crashing, forcing her to isolate from friends, extended family, and sometimes even from her big brother, Oisín. He didn’t understand why Mammy and Fióna kept leaving without him, and his confusion and hurt only added to the family’s heartbreak.
Simon and Sarah felt like themselves again. Watching Fióna play happily in the camp’s creche, safe, smiling and simply being a child brought Sarah and Simon to tears”
In the middle of all this, Barretstown quietly became a lifeline. The Hospital Outreach Team were available for warmth and support when everything felt overwhelming. Since Barretstown only receives 4% funding from the government, it is kind donations from the public that kept these supports going.
When Fióna was finally well enough to come to a family camp at Barretstown, the change was instant. Oisin and Fióna lit up with excitement, and for the first time in months, Simon and Sarah felt like themselves again. Watching Fióna play happily in the camp’s creche, safe, smiling and simply being a child brought Sarah and Simon to tears. It was a moment they thought cancer had stolen.
The therapeutic programmes at Barretstown allowed them to reconnect and heal as a family whose life had been put on hold.
Barretstown’s Oak Woods Walkway to honour Barretstown founder Paul Newman’s life and greatest legacy
– and your legacy, if you choose…
Over 30 years ago, actor Paul Newman had a dream: imagine if children with cancer and other serious illnesses had the chance to simply be children. Or in his words, a place where they could “raise a little hell”. In 1994 Paul founded Barretstown, his first Serious Fun camp outside the US.
Since then, thanks to kind-hearted people donating, Barretstown has welcomed over 150,000 campers through our castle gates – all amazing children living with serious illness.
This year Paul would have turned 100. We can think of no more beautiful way to honour Barretstown’s founder than to honour our generous legacy givers alongside him, with a permanent planting of Irish oaks, one of the longest lived of all our trees. If you are considering leaving a gift in your will to Barretstown please contact Clare Martin at
045 863100 or clare.martin@barretstown.org
We would love for your name to live on at Barretstown in our Oak Woods Walkway. Happy birthday Paul Newman and thank you. You’re still changing lives.
